ANDERSON, JOHN D.

William L. Mann

ANDERSON, JOHN D. (1819–1849). John D. Anderson, early settler, soldier, and politician, the son of Dr. Thomas Anderson, was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, on June 21, 1819. He arrived with his father and brother, Washington Anderson, at Port Lavaca, Texas, in February 1835 and afterward settled in Benjamin R. Milam's colony. He was a member of Jesse Billingsley's company but missed seeing action at the battle of San Jacinto because he had been assigned to the detail left at Harrisburg to guard the baggage. Anderson studied law at Webber's Prairie in the office of Barrie Gillespie, and on February 5, 1844, President Sam Houston appointed him district attorney for the Fourth Judicial District, an act that automatically rendered Anderson a member of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas. He served as a Gonzales delegate to the Convention of 1845 and fought in the Mexican War in 1846. In 1847 he was a member of the Second Legislature from Gonzales County. Anderson was twice married. Little is known about the first Mrs. Anderson. The second, Ellen P. Erskine, was the daughter of Michael H. Erskine. Anderson apparently died in Guadalupe County on April 10, 1849, and was buried in the Erskine family cemetery near Capote Ranch, a few miles from Seguin.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832–1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).

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